Open-Field System

The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system across much of Europe during the Middle Ages, and it lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran and Turkey. Each manor or village held two or three large fields, usually several hundred acres each, divided into many narrow strips of land that were cultivated by peasant tenants or serfs. A manor's holdings also included woodland and pasture for common use, alongside fields belonging to the lord of the manor and to religious authorities, usually the Roman Catholic church in medieval Western Europe. Farmers customarily lived in separate houses within a nucleated village near a much larger manor house and church, and the system required cooperation among the manor's residents to function.